THE NATION'S DECISION

For the last twelve months the political interests of the country have been foremost in the minds of all. As the different parties marshalled there forces first for the nominating conventions and finally for the battle at the polls today, the increasing political activities have been influencing the University and its members.

Unlike many Presidential compaigns this one has peculiarly enlisted the efforts and interest of college men. Perhaps the fact the both candidates are graduates of well-known American college offers an explanation. A deeper reason for this active participation in the fight can be found in the character of the issues. The majority of compaigns in the past have presented tangible, easily understood questions about which the man in the street could easily formulate an opinion. Opposed to such is this year's most important issue, the foreign policy of the United States. Even lawyers and diplomats of international fame find the settling of questions contained in this issue a delicate and puzzling matter. College man, although often as ignorant about the duties and obligations of the United States as less educated men, are more eager to discuss abstract issues than one dealing with a change in the mode of appointing judges.

Harvard has shown itself particularly active this fall with the Democratic Club's successful effort on the stump and the Republican Club's mast meeting and torchlight parade. The results of all the straw votes taken in the different colleges cannot be fashioned into a prophecy of today's result. Yet the apparent strength of Wilson in the Middle West in borne out by the vote of the colleges in that district. The Eastern universities gave Hughes a comfortable margin with one exception, which is Columbia. The latter contains such a great mass of cosmopolitan and representative students that the closeness of Columbia's straw-vote should be considered more seriously as a forecast of the actual result than the large majorities of other Eastern colleges where obvious influences explain the Hughes victories. Whether the nation's decision leases the Majority of Harvard men or the majority of Columbia men will actually make little difference. The important and most encouraging feature of the 1916 compaign has been the increased and active interest in American politics exhibited by the college men of the country.